


Chloris

by Oinops



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, First Time, Porn With Plot, Praise Kink, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:47:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23323450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oinops/pseuds/Oinops
Summary: The glow from the moon’s surface was pale and understated, casting a strange and different light on her features. Even the sharp line of her nose looked softer, her brow smoother. Bathed in the silver of space, her armor glittered.“This is all. Any questions?”Blue tore her gaze away from the unspecified spot on Yellow’s shoulder she’d been staring at, right back to her face. She saw that same serious expression was still there and immediately lowered her eyes, hoping her brief moment of distraction had gone unnoticed.“No, it’s perfect.”Or: Blue and Yellow's first shared colony.
Relationships: Blue Diamond/Yellow Diamond (Steven Universe)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 96





	Chloris

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lunar_sapphic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunar_sapphic/gifts).



As the two ships slowly drew into orbit, Blue kept quiet. On the opposite side of the holographic screen was Yellow: still, and silent, her features bent in that vague scowl that always seemed to follow her wherever she went. The younger diamond observed as she uncrossed her legs at the ankle, crossed them again at the knee, distractedly tapped a few buttons on the control panel with her free hand.

“Thirty minutes to landing,” she announced, flatly.

It was the most she had spoken in days.

But was that something to worry about, really? After all, she had never been fond of small talk—to say the least—and certainly wasn’t someone who enjoyed being distracted while busy, either. And even that wasn’t really an issue, Blue supposed.

All things considered, neither was she.

And yet, that strange and cold weight that had been writhing at the pit of her stomach since they’d first boarded wouldn’t seem to leave.

Briefly, and in spite of herself, she wondered just how much Yellow resented her for this. She could have been on her way to her next successful colony, by now—leading her new, freshly emerged personal fleet, eradicating organics from an alien planet with that same ease she had in flicking dust off her armored shoulders. 

It could have all been so simple.

If White, for once, had been pleased with Blue, or at the very least as cryptically indifferent as she so often seemed to be to the leader of Homeworld’s armies.

If she, for once, had managed to suck it up and stand on her own two feet.

On any normal day, this would have meant a trip to the tower. Or, most plausibly, a few dozen years asleep in a bubble. A joint colony was unprecedented. Raising her eyes absentmindedly, she briefly caught sight of Yellow bending her mouth in displeasure.

For a second, it almost seemed hard to tell who this was really punishment for.

The monitor lit up in a chiming sound, signaling they would finally be ready to enter the moon’s atmosphere. She typed a few coordinates into it, her ship beginning to shift positions. Much like the rest of the journey, their descent was slow and uneventful: the two spacecrafts hummed, their engines’ exhalations causing the sparse local flora to bend and waver as they halted a few hundred feet from the ground. Then, the rotation began.

The two metal arms joined right at the fingertips, just enough for their respective pilots to meet one another in the middle. Still, Blue had barely risen from her control chair when the familiar sound of clicking heels made her pause. She checked to her left, and sure enough the room on the opposite side of her holoscreen was already empty.

“Our construction bots will begin to assemble the base soon,” Yellow informed, apparently dead set on avoiding any possible kind of polite conversation. “It will be up in three hours or so. I’ll give you further information there.”

She turned around and left as quickly as she had come in, and Blue’s cheerful greeting died in her throat. Sighing, she slumped back on her chair with a lack of grace White would have certainly reprimanded, if there.

The robots were news to her. Building an observatory seemed like a Bismuth's work, and a matter of two months at the very fastest—or at least it was, last time she had checked.

Maybe this was just one of the many reasons why she kept failing so miserably.

The young diplomat inhaled, brought her feet up on her chair, her eyes glued to the smooth quartz floor. She pressed her forehead against her bent knees, and her next breath came out as a sob.

—

The spire was tall, angular, cold grey—the climb up top eased by a shimmering and equally pale floating sphere. It was the exact standard, save for the twin thrones and control panels at opposite sides of the hexagonal room. Behind her back towered the three customary murals, but Blue really couldn’t care less for them. She’d never really liked how harsh and plain they looked, anyway.

She had always much preferred what stood behind that round, faceted dome: the glimmer of stars, the soft glow of a satellite. She loved to map out constellations, invent her own secret mythologies. Loved the peculiar way in which the reflected light of a moon could make her hair shimmer like water.

She knew vanity wasn’t befitting of a leader, and that neither was such fondness for silly stories.

It all seemed so strange, though, how it almost didn’t hurt as much, as long as White wasn’t there.

Yellow was, however: already at her designated working space, her back perfectly straight even as she silently browsed through the colonization plans on a pale grey screen. Blue’s dress rustled against the cold floor with each of her steps, and she cleared her throat.

“I’m here,” she stated. Meekly, plainly. She was almost worried Yellow hadn’t heard her, at first, but the general quickly turned away from the computer and towards her.

“Blue Diamond,” she greeted coldly, and the strange formality made the younger one shiver.

“You wanted to talk to me,” she prompted regardless, trying to appear unbothered. Had it been anyone else, she wouldn’t have needed to: she’d brush it off gracefully, gently, with that type of artfully concealed sarcasm she’d apparently emerged already a master of.

But Yellow’s eyes were golden, scorching, gleaming like newborn stars in the half-darkness, and Blue’s tongue was suddenly tied.

“Yes, here,” she motioned, escorting her to the other side of the room. She turned to the control panel again, pulling up several other translucent screens: a map of the planet as it currently looked, a graph of what would have been their end goal, and about a dozen spreadsheets between them.

“As you can see, the colony doesn’t host any sentient life,” Yellow began. “You’ll be able to send some of your Lapis Lazulis down and start the terraforming process immediately. We can fit three kindergartens in this continental area, and you’ll have room for an underwater one inside this trench, right there,” she explained, pointing to the map with one gloved finger. “We’ll divide them equally between the two of us. The environment itself is largely desertic and mountainous, and prone to violent storms for a big portion of the year—we’ll need to take that into account when…”

She went on, barely paying Blue any mind. As that sudden deluge of words slowly started to blend together, she let her thoughts wander. Her eyes lingered on one of Yellow’s hands: the concealed slenderness of her wrist, a slight tremor in her fingers she could have sworn had never been there before.

Or maybe she’d just never paid enough attention.

The glow from the moon’s surface was pale and understated, casting a strange and different light on her features. Even the sharp line of her nose looked softer, her brow smoother. Bathed in the silver of space, her armor glittered.

“This is all. Any questions?”

Blue tore her gaze away from the unspecified spot on Yellow’s shoulder she’d been staring at, right back to her face. She saw that same serious expression was still there and immediately lowered her eyes, hoping her brief moment of distraction had gone unnoticed.

“No, it’s perfect.”

“Wonderful. You can call your gems down, I’ll go and send a few Agates to supervise the operations.”

With that, the diamond turned on her feet and made a move for the elevator. She had almost disappeared again when Blue stopped her.

“Yellow,” she called, mentally berating herself not a second after for always sounding so whiny. Her counterpart paused and looked back to her.

“Yes.”

“What is the planet’s name again?”

From the other side of the room, she could hear her sigh softly. How stupid, Blue realized: she’d probably told her ten times over already.

“Chloris,” Yellow replied regardless. And with that, she was gone.

—

Over the next few months, their work proceeded smoothly but slowly. Yellow still barely talked, and whenever she did, it was almost never directed at her. She kept to herself, confined to her assigned portion of the observatory. Sometimes she’d leave to instruct a new legion of Quartzes, and Blue would peek over her shoulder to see her walk away. Her attempted greetings were almost never reciprocated.

On such rare occasions, however, Yellow seemingly couldn’t help but freeze and scramble to turn her eyes away as fast as possible.

Blue was almost starting to believe she was afraid of her.

That day, however, when she stormed back into the control room, she seemed far more tense than the diplomat had ever seen her in her entire life.

She turned on her chair, saw her hastily walk back to her desk and wipe the sweat off her forehead. Yellow sat down. The tremor in her fingers was back, only this time it would have taken a blind Sapphire not to notice.

She tapped the panel once, accidentally making it short circuit.

“Oh, for Andromeda’s—”

“Yellow!”

Blue stood, walked up to her. The general was holding her own arm, rubbing it around the wrist: the glove slightly charred, golden sparks still flying around her hand. She took a deep breath.

“What now?”

Everything about her and the situation was really starting to get on Blue’s nerves.

“An explanation could be a start.”

“It’s none of your concern.”

That finally set her off. Blue clenched her fist, trying to restrain herself.

“Oh, isn’t it? Because last time I checked, this is my colony as much as it is yours,” she hissed. Yellow paused and raised her eyes in bewilderment, but it didn’t stop her.

“You haven’t said one word since we left Homeworld. It’s like you’re trying to pretend I don’t exist, and whenever I make any attempt at conversation, you outright ignore me,” she spat. Only, this time, it was louder.

The other was gaping.

“And I get it, you know. I’m incapable. I’m defective, I’m _slow_ ,” she said, poking her temple with one index and tightening her hold around the desk she was leaning on. “I’m beneath you, you can’t stand me, I get it. Really sorry you have to share. All of this must be really humiliating for you, but guess what, it wasn’t my idea either.”

She’d always been cautious, mild-mannered, reluctant to raise her voice in front of others. It seemed, however, that Yellow was always destined to be her one exception.

In spite of herself, her eyes were starting to well up. She brought her hand up to her face, pinched her nose, took a few slow breaths in an attempt to regain at least an ounce of composure. She calmed down, looked again, and Yellow was still staring: a single, foreign tear on her cheek brought there by Blue’s powers. Uncaring, she wiped it off with the inside of her wrist.

Seeing her grasping for words was almost as unusual a sight as watching her lose her composure in a fit of panic. Staring with an open mouth was the one thing she managed to do for a good while. Blue took a step back, still irritated and now puzzled too.

“Say something, please.”

“I never meant to. My apologies,” Yellow spoke, turning away in defeat, never actually specifying what.

Blue’s shoulders fell, and so did her eyes. She felt slightly ashamed, now.

“You do dislike me.”

“I don’t. Believe me.”

“You must think I’m an incompetent fool, then. At least deep down.”

“I don’t, I just…” Yellow began, losing her confidence halfway through her sentence. She averted her eyes again, planting them outside of the glass dome. Blue inhaled.

“I get it.”

“You really don’t. It has nothing to do with that.”

“Then what could it possibly have to do with?” she blurted out, more resigned than angry. As she slumped down and sat on the table, Yellow reached out in what was possibly an instinctive attempt at comfort, then seemed to think better of it.

“It makes things easier,” she sighed, finally. “You do your work. I do mine. You design the spires and arenas, I make sure they stay upright. Just like she wants.”

But she didn’t seem too convinced, either.

“Sometimes I really can’t stand you,” Blue spat, without any real bite. Yellow seemed hurt regardless. At that point, it had stopped bothering her.

“You really think all of this is just a farce,” the other accused.

“As a matter of fact, yes I do.”

“And you think either of us can _afford it_?” she exclaimed, shakily, suddenly, in a way that made Blue recoil. “Do you really think she cares about your opinions, that she will hear any of it?” she continued, breathless. “There was an earthquake, and now the galaxy warps need to be rebuilt from scratch. This will set us back another two weeks. Do you think she’ll let it _slide_?”

Blue was speechless for a moment. She looked back to her—her eyes wide open, her ribcage heaving.

“This was completely outside of our control, you can’t possibly be stressing over it this much.”

“It doesn’t _matter_ whose fault it is, Blue.”

It hit her, then, as she watched her balled fists shake and her breath quicken. Was this how she managed to always be on top of her tasks, the reason why Blue could never keep up?

That cold feeling at the pit of her belly suddenly started creeping up again.

“You could have told me regardless, we’re colleagues,” she spoke, then, after a long pause. “I will lend you some of my construction workers, we’ll get a few days back.”

Yellow didn’t seem particularly comforted.

“It still won’t be enough.”

“Do you have any other ideas, then?”

Yellow halted, briefly lost in thought, seemingly oblivious to the ironical nature of Blue’s question. She tapped her fingertips against the edge of her desk, her head in her other hand.

“I do. I mean, I could. I’m not quite sure if it would work, in all honesty,” she confessed, dead serious, almost as if they were plotting high treason right there in that room. “Most importantly, I’m not sure she would approve.”

“She’s not here, though,” Blue noted, matching her conspiratorial tone. “Tell me,” she probed, when Yellow stopped speaking.

“Extraction fluid… has some interesting properties. It can repair broken technology almost instantly, or at least it’s what I’ve observed,” the oldest began, with a tentativeness that seemed so discordant to her person. “I can gather some, build a few robots and have them apply it to the broken warps. Or attempt to, I mean.”

It was truly peculiar. Blue had never seen her like this before: her eyes gleaming, her voice heavy with both uncertainty and anticipation. 

“That sounds remarkable, I would have never thought of that,” she commented.

Immediately, Yellow seemed to brighten up a little. Still, she had nothing more to say.

“You seem to rely on technology a lot,” Blue added. “This base, too, for example. I would just have commanded a team of Bismuths to build it.”

The general seemed to deflate. “I know it’s not how we’re supposed to do it. Even White doesn’t—”

“No! It’s smart. It took us less than one fifth of the time, didn’t it? We should start implementing it.”

Yellow was staring at her in what could only be described as disbelief. 

“I’ll let you know I don’t take kindly to flattery, Blue. Especially not from equals.”

Blue felt disoriented, then deeply embarrassed.

Then hurt.

“What on Homeworld could possibly lead you to believe I didn’t mean that?”

She looked at her in earnest. Yellow held her gaze for a while, then turned to her side again. “Why would you? _She_ never cared for it. It’s unprecedented, and that settles it.”

“Well, maybe I’m different. And maybe it would benefit her not to act so pedantic for a change.”

Almost inaudibly, Yellow gasped. But she had no following objection, no other comment. In the semi-darkness, they stared at one another: Blue tilted her head, softened her glare, tried to bridge the final gap.

“You could still tell me about it. I know I probably don’t seem the type, but I do find this genuinely interesting.”

Yellow still seemed skeptical, but eventually complied. “Bring your chair over here,” she asked. “I can show you a few things.”

Blue obeyed, and before she had even sat down, Yellow had materialized yet another battalion of diagrams. “I have been thinking about implementing our knowledge in robotics to enhance gem productivity too, for example,” she started cautiously. “Defective gems would be able to absolve their duties too, and we’d waste way less resources.”

“It sounds incredible, Yellow,” Blue encouraged in barely concealed awe, both at the projects and the sight that was before her: the first, genuine show of excitement on her companion’s face, for the most part still hidden by a lingering sense of defensiveness that she couldn’t seem to breach through.

“I mean it,” she added. Yellow didn’t thank her—Blue doubted she would ever learn to. Still, when she turned back to her notes, the youngest could swear the ghost of a smile had graced the corner of her lips for a second.

Inside her chest, something tumbled.

—

Years went by, cycle by cycle. They grew closer, and Blue kept observing. There were so many surprising characteristics and quirks she would never have imagined Yellow to possess. How prone to joking she was, for example, in her own dry and sarcastic way, or that particular habit she had of resting one foot over her other knee while sitting down. How genuinely excited she seemed about doing all that math Blue had never cared for. How proactive she was, how ready to help despite her initial front of dismissiveness.

They kept talking, night and day. She’d show her sketches, blueprints for courtrooms, obelisks and arenas, and Yellow would tell her all about her new spacecraft prototypes in exchange. Her criticisms never turned into mockery, never into bitter indifference.

It was such a bizarre sensation.

Coming back from a field inspection, Blue found her hunched over one of her tables, tinkering with something she couldn’t see from the doorway. That wasn’t by any means unusual, and by now she should have known Yellow didn’t like to be interrupted in her work. But her curiosity got the best of her.

She approached her slowly, leaning over the desk. “Yellow,” she greeted, making her start. 

It was just the millionth thing about her—how silly she looked, sometimes, without meaning to.

“Blue,” she exclaimed, clearly surprised, as if snapping out of a daze. In her hand was a small and clear container filled with golden, shimmering liquid: the content of an injector. Slightly off to the side, about three or four local ground samples.

“What is this?” Blue asked, instinctively placing a hand on her back, and Yellow tensed up imperceptibly. 

She immediately retracted it, guilty.

“White demands a new class of gems from my court,” the general explained, still. “Engineers, she says. I’ve been testing with every type of soil present on this planet, and none work. I can’t think of anything else to add to the extraction fluid. I might just have to find another colony.”

The dreary look on her face was familiar. Although subdued, now, she recognized it from years back: each time she’d overheard her recount a military failure in the throne room, whenever White would skim over her reports in front of her. Or decades ago, in that very observatory, when she’d seen her fall to pieces over the slightest inconvenience.

Blue reflected deeply for a moment, observing the vial. “May I?” she asked, taking it in her hands. She raised it up against the light, swirled it around, paused in thought. 

An attempt couldn’t hurt.

She wet one of her fingertips with her mouth, then dipped it into the cup. It glittered for a second, before turning the faintest shade of green.

“Try now.”

Yellow, too, seemed to have gone through a significant change in color. Averting her eyes as quickly as possible, she brought the vial closer and poured a few drops on the patch of dirt.

“I’m, uh, I should…” she stammered, way too quietly, covering her mouth. “No. It looks like it could work, actually. We’d just need to… No, it’s okay.”

She turned to her, and Blue smiled. For an instant she smiled back, then proceeded to bury her head into her work once again.

For a change, the possibility of their superior’s disapproval was never even brought up.

“Actually, Yellow,” Blue called, dragging her own chair closer, “there was something I wanted you to see.”

“Oh?”

“Nothing too important,” she reassured, opening one of her data pads. “I finished my project for the main square just yesterday, take a look.”

Yellow slid closer. It was really just the usual: shaped like a rhombus, angular buildings at every side, several symmetrical streets leading to it. The Authority symbol at its center.

“Seems perfect,” she encouraged, if a bit puzzled. Blue continued.

“We never circled back on that color issue, remember? I was thinking we could make it green.”

“...Oh. Yes, sure. Fine by me,” Yellow mumbled, strangely flustered.

Blue nodded and smiled, and immediately turned back to her own work.

—

They both sat in front of the same large, bright grey projector screen, and Blue was fidgeting. For the tenth time in five minutes, Yellow stood up to lean over the control panel. She typed in a new string of inputs, waited for a few more seconds.

Nothing.

They’d been getting vicious acidic storms that month, right in the sector where three of their four kindergartens were located. The first gems were due to emerge anytime, now, and that could have been a complete disaster. Moreover—

“…There is no signal, I can’t get anything here. I imagine the sensors got destroyed in the flood, or something equally stupid,” Yellow sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I’ll have to get down there and check myself.”

She’d never been one to stall: she shut down the screen and stood up immediately, moving towards the exit. It was a familiar scene. She could have been gone for a month, a week, ten years, and Blue suddenly felt silly.

Young. 

But even back then, she was sure, she wouldn’t have cared like this. Being on top of the world, after all, also meant being lonely. If one were to listen to White, they would have been told it was inherent: no escape, no cure, no use in even attempting.

She used to accept it wholeheartedly, once.

And why wouldn’t she, after all?

“Yellow.”

Her companion turned around and blinked.

“I’ll come with you,” she said, on impulse. She rarely got involved in such things: field work had never been her strong suit, and even saying that was being kind. Hearing this, Yellow seemed rightfully surprised.

“You don’t have to, really. It’ll be a few cycles’ matter at best.”

“I want to. This is my colony, too.”

The ruler gave her one of her famous unreadable looks, those that Blue’s racing mind was always prone to interpret as either annoyance or masked disapproval. Nevertheless, she complied.

“As you wish. Follow me.”

They warped down in silence, Blue with her heart in her throat. When they got there, the sky was grey and livid: cold wind started blowing, and she had to pull her hood up to shield her face. 

She looked down, immediately noticing Yellow had already moved ahead: the pad was on a small slope, surrounded by unsteady rubble, and she was staring at her from below. 

One thing she knew for sure—it was certainly easier to climb down in pants than a floor-length gown.

Her first step was too uncertain, and she found herself toppling over. Yellow lunged forward on reflex, breaking her fall with her arms and circling her waist.

Blue’s face was suddenly aflame.

The general slowly let go, her touch lingering on her arm and then her hand. She blinked a few times, equally as startled, then cleared her throat.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather go back?”

They stared at one another for a few more instants, still in shock, until Blue started giggling nervously. Yellow couldn’t help but follow suit, and soon both of them were just short of bending over in laughter.

She couldn’t imagine ever getting used to it.

Blue heard her sneer, scoff, even giggle with her hand over her face in an attempt not to be noticed nearly everyday, but laughing was a different matter. It was rare, and she always thought of it as a sight to treasure: the brightness of her voice, the small gaps between her teeth, the water prickling the corner of her eyes.

How absolutely disconcerting it looked.

How light-headed it made her feel.

“Jokes aside, we should get moving,” Yellow spurred eventually, trying to regain her breath, and Blue nodded, stupid and still half-dazed. The commander didn’t let go of her hand until minutes after.

When she did, it suddenly felt cold.

The colony was absolutely perfect, or at least it was as far as completed colonies went. No plants, no moisture in the barren ground: only gaping craters, smooth stone and glimmering cerulean sand.

Blue supposed she should have been proud.

“They should be here,” Yellow noted, snapping her out of her thoughts once again. She was looking at the destroyed ground base, then moved back to the tall facet from which her new Citrines would soon be emerging: no sensors in sight, not in the mountainside nor on the ground. 

“The last storm must have swept them away. Or melted them, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Right as she spoke, another gust of icy wind blew across Blue’s face, and she shivered. It was immediately followed by an ominous rumble, and then the first few droplets. Curious, she outstretched her naked hand to catch one.

It burned.

Her eyes travelled from her open palm to the group of boulders in front of her. Raindrops started landing on them, leaving small dents and other little signs of corrosion wherever they touched. Both of them were Diamonds, arguably the most resilient living creatures that side of the universe: Blue stood paralyzed as she watched that drizzle come down on Yellow’s helmet, already marring it on the very tip.

“We need to leave, now,” she stated firmly, completely serious once again. They started hurrying back to the warp pad as fast as Blue’s dress allowed. Both heaving, they managed to get about a dozen feet away from it.

Then lightning struck, splitting it in half.

—

“There must be _something_ around here,” Yellow begged, her breathing ragged as they climbed up yet another barren hill. The howling wind and corrosive downpour made it hard to see, and Blue kept wondering how in the universe they had managed to end up stranded on the only section of the planet that hadn’t been urbanized yet.

Thunder struck again, making her jump.

The rain hurt her exposed skin, her bare feet, and she bundled up tighter inside her travel cloak. Beside her, Yellow led the way. Too focused on following the path, she ended up bumping into her a few steps after.

She was dizzy.

Noticing Yellow had actually halted, she looked up. There was a jutting, giant boulder standing right before their eyes: just below it, the entrance to what appeared to be a cave.

It certainly wasn’t ideal, or even dignified.

But again, she was also starting to see double.

“We’ll make do,” the general remarked, almost as if reading her mind, already crouching. “Get in,” she encouraged, and Blue wobbled over. Unaware of the gap at the entrance, she fell down and onto her knees.

Once again, Yellow had to help her up. She allowed herself to lean on her as they tentatively walked in, then sat down in a spot that seemed relatively safe.

Her body against hers felt warm, secure. 

The only thing around her not spinning uncontrollably.

“It’s dark,” was the first thing she managed to say as she slowly regained consciousness. Yellow snorted.

“At least it’s dry.”

She supposed that was true. 

They could have easily started a small fire, if only there was any wood left on the surface. Provident as always, however, Yellow let her gem glow, and they could finally start looking around. 

The cavity was large enough to accommodate both of them with relative ease, which she chalked up to sheer luck; one half was covered in fine, pale sand—the other by glimmering purple crystals, plus what was probably the last remaining noteworthy concentration of freshwater on the entire colony, not an arm’s stretch away from where they were sitting.

How convenient.

Getting back on her knees was painful, but it had to be done. She crawled over to the small pool of water and gathered some in her hands, splashing it on her face. Yellow followed suit: Blue observed as she crouched beside her, willing her completely corroded helmet and tarnished gloves out of existence.

“Are you okay?” she asked, and the diplomat nodded.

“You really could have let me share my mantle with you,” she remarked afterwards, but Yellow shook her head. She dipped her arm into the pond, flinching.

How little care she took of herself.

Blue suddenly felt compelled to scoot over. Still weak in her movements, she took her hands in hers. Yellow seemed confused, at first, until she materialized a clean veil and used it to dab them with water.

“You don’t have to. They’ll heal by themselves soon enough.”

“I’ll be bored out of my mind before we can get out of here. Let me have this one thing, Yellow.”

They both knew her remark had no real malice to it, and ended up sharing amused smiles. The reddened wounds slowly started to fade, just as promised, making way to smooth golden skin.

Blue had never seen her up close like this, never touched her so intimately. She smoothed her fingertips over the back of her hands once again, noticing just how slender and bony they were, taking in the feel of each of the small calluses on her palms. She looked into her eyes again, closely: under the glow of their gemstones, they glimmered gold and green.

“I used to think you couldn’t stand me, you know,” she blurted out, unprompted. Yellow grinned.

“I do remember you telling me something like that a few decades ago.”

“You never talked to me, not even to say hi. Can you blame me?”

“I just didn’t think you’d want to listen to me.”

“You think the silliest things, sometimes.”

They stood facing one another for a few more seconds, hand in hand. Once again, Blue stared intently: her armor was charred, and breaking apart in places. She moved closer, took her by the shoulders.

“What are you doing, now?”

“Taking this off, it looks awful,” she reassured. “Is it okay?”

Yellow looked up to her, and could only manage to swallow and nod.

The pauldrons came off, glittering into nonexistence as soon as Blue rested them on the ground. She unclasped her breastplate, pressed her hands against her bare sides, and noticed she was shaking.

“Are you cold, Yellow?”

She shook her head.

Perhaps both of them should have seen this coming.

Their mouths joined, softly and clumsily, as two mouths who haven’t yet learned how to kiss often do. The sensation was strange, exhilarating. She already knew Yellow’s body to be warm, but her tongue against hers felt even warmer. 

Blue let go for an instant, causing her to whine softly at the loss of contact. 

She placed a chaste peck to the corner of her lips. An apology.

“We shouldn’t—”

“I know.”

They met halfway regardless, once again, quickly.

“How long?” Blue asked, breathless, their foreheads pressed together, and there was no need to explain.

“Two hundred years, at least. More. In the control room, when you yelled at me. Even before. I…”

“You never told me. Oh, Yellow, I would have done something—I would have—”

But deep down, she couldn’t blame her. She already knew fusion to be wrong and forbidden. 

She also knew this couldn’t be much different.

“It doesn’t matter, we’re alone now. We’re here, and we’re alone,” she repeated, feverishly tracing Yellow’s face with her fingers. “We’re alone, and she can’t see us, and…”

Before she could finish, the general had already stolen her lips again. Blue raked her hands down her back, slipped them up her shirt and down her pants, frantically started to get rid of any physical barrier standing between them. 

Yellow shivered.

“Blue, I…”

“I’m here, Yellow. I’m…”

She threw her own clothes and veil down into a makeshift bed, then guided her to lie on her back. The glow from their gems and its reflection on the crystal walls was the only source of illumination inside the chamber, and Blue moved closer to get a better look: she marvelled at her graceful, slender shape, at the shimmering wash of gold slowly spreading across her cheeks.

She bent down to kiss her mouth, her closed eyelids, her neck, the bright stone on her chest, all the while smoothing her palm down her belly and up again to cup one of her breasts.

“Blue…”

“Hush, now.”

She planted another wet kiss to her sharp shoulder, her collarbone, and every inch of skin she could reach.

Yellow moaned softly, immediately biting her tongue after. How strange it was, seeing her like this.

How beautiful she looked.

Blue climbed on top of her, positioned herself between her legs, allowed her to hold onto her shoulders. 

She couldn’t possibly keep herself from telling her.

“You’re wonderful,” she whispered directly against her ear, kissing the shell right after, caressing up and down her stomach. “So wonderful.”

Her fingertips let out a small static shock.

Blue giggled mischievously. It was contagious. Yellow puffed, embarrassed, that same deep golden flush now going from her ears to her chest.

The youngest smiled fondly again, noticed how glossy her eyes were. She leaned down once more, focusing her attention on her neck again. “You really are, you know.”

Another kiss, another caress down her side and over her soft inner thigh. Another shiver.

“You really, really are. I know you might not believe me, but I just think…”

Yellow dug her fingers into her back, bucking her hips against her leg.

For someone who didn’t like flattery, Blue mused, she sure seemed awfully responsive.

Her fingers wandered lower, discovering a small tuft of hair and an even greater source of warmth. “How impatient,” she scolded tenderly, kissing Yellow’s cheek. The oldest reached out in answer, tangled their fingers together.

Blue breathed in, suddenly more uncertain. This was, after all, a completely new experience. She knew what such organic rituals entailed in theory, of course; still, in the same vein, knowing about outer space didn’t automatically make one a good pilot.

Not to mention how spaceships often seemed way more intuitive.

She experimentally dipped down into wet heat and then back up again, mimicking what she usually did by herself. Yellow shivered again. 

It was a start.

Pressing her thumb against the small bundle of nerves right above her entrance, she started moving it in circles. Her lover’s breath became labored: she tangled a pair of shaky arms around her neck, pulling her closer. Blue increased the pace.

“You’re so beautiful,” she whispered again, eliciting another soft moan. “So lovely. No one in this universe is as lovely as you.”

Yellow squeezed her shoulder. A good sign. She slipped one finger past the entrance, meeting little to no resistance. She curled it gently, and the effect was immediate.

“You’re doing great,” Blue encouraged, planting another, lingering kiss on her temple. Back and forth and back and forth, again and again.

“So great,” she repeated, millimeters from her mouth. Yellow’s gaze was unfocused, her eyelids heavy. She parted her lips and tried to say something, but it only came out as another choked up moan.

“Please, Blue, I…”

Blue interpreted it as an invitation to go faster, and quickly sped up the pace. She bent over again and caught one of her breasts in her mouth, holding the other with the hand that wasn’t busy. They were small, enough to comfortably sit in her palm, and possibly the softest thing she had ever felt.

Yellow’s breath warmed her neck, and she eased in another finger. Another sequence of shallow movements, another curl, and the other instinctively covered her mouth.

Back and forth, back and forth—slow, and fast, and slow again. She followed her muffled keening, the small and sudden hitches in her breath.

It couldn’t have taken much longer.

“Look at me, Yellow. I want to see you. Look at me, _please_ —”

“Blue…”

She came undone in less than five minutes, arching her back, calling her name over and over. Blue felt her spasm around her fingers, slowly guiding her down as the thighs she was kneeling between began to shake. 

It took a long time for Yellow to regain her breath, or her voice.

“Blue,” she murmured again, laying on her side, spent. She brought her hand up, used it to tuck a stray lock of hair behind her companion’s ear.

Her eyes were wet, and she was shivering. Blue took her chance and grabbed her cloak back, laying it over them both. She moved closer and took her in her arms.

“I love you,” she whispered, again and again, scratching her nape with soothing motions. Yellow didn’t answer: she opted, instead, for resting her face against the locks of hair draping over her chest, breathing in slowly.

“I never managed to… you know… before. By myself,” she confessed minutes after, embarrassed. Blue turned to look at her.

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Wow, now I feel even more special,” she giggled, kissing her forehead. Yellow squeezed her hand.

“You should,” she stated plainly, looking her right in the eye, with that so very out of place air of solemnity she had about her sometimes. Blue couldn’t help but smile again.

“I didn’t return the favor,” Yellow mused.

“I don’t mind.”

“But I—”

“Let yourself have this, Yellow. Let me take care of you, for once,” Blue shushed, gently combing her short hair with her fingers. “We have time.”

She listened to the storm outside, barely noticing when both of their forms started glowing in unison.

“We have all the time in the world.”

—

Locked outside of the throne room, Blue waited. The anxiety was paralyzing—but she, like everyone else there, had become a master at not letting it show in public.

Just one sliding door and ornate drapery away were Yellow and White. She’d been spared report duty, this once, but that didn’t mean she could let her guard down. 

Chloris was hers, too. And as usual, her entire future depended on it.

When Yellow exited from the opposite side of the hallway, she seemed mildly displeased. It was the most she allowed herself in front of others, and Blue knew well.

Her heart sank.

She walked up to her, slowly, stopping at the customary twenty feet of distance. 

“Yellow,” she greeted.

“Blue.”

The general didn’t need extra prompting. “She didn’t seem displeased. Despite our unorthodox initiatives and, well… three-cycle long inexplicable disappearance from every star map,” she explained, clearing her throat, “she deems the work appropriate.”

“Then what is it, Yellow?” Blue pressed, unable to restrain herself any longer. The other gaped, then averted her eyes and swallowed.

“Nothing at all. In fact, I’m on my way to my new assignment right now.”

Her voice seemed unsteady.

“And what would that be?”

“A new colony in Sector 6. I’ll be boarding in ten.”

“...Oh.”

If Blue didn’t know her so well, she could have sworn her eyes were wet.

“I’ll be there for the next… Five hundred years, hopefully. Maybe—”

Blue wished she could lean over, close the gap between them, bury her face in the crook of her neck.

Hold her hand. Just for five more minutes.

It wasn’t something they were allowed. Not there.

“Farewell, Yellow,” she breathed, forcing herself not to cry. She just needed to wait. Just needed to reach her room and…

“Farewell, Blue,” Yellow bowed, walking away. As she made her way past her, her gloved pinkie brushed against her naked hand.

 _I’m sorry_ , it said.

 _Don’t be_ , Blue’s eyes answered, watching her round the corner and disappear.

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted by that very brief shot in the movie where we can see a colony with green buildings, exclusively inhabited by blue, yellow, and green gems.
> 
> Also by my wonderful girlfriend, who this fic was commissioned by. (❤️)
> 
> And yes, after more than a year I am still on my Bellow bullshit.


End file.
